Score: 0-0(full time)
Penalties: 5-4 penalties to the Wai Wais...
Lineup:
Jules
Belgium Raz Ikester Garrows
Howard D Cheung Justin Aki
Spenny Leo
I never thought I'd be writing a match report again but here it is.
To summarize, honestly, to those newcomers, GF use to play in other leagues where the opposition would dive, yell, shriek non stop even before the tackle. Im use to it. Tonight was definitely another one of them local teams trying to get every single call their way. And to some extent, it worked.
FIRST HALF
GF started with plenty of might and intensity and these guys knew it was going to be a fast paced game. There were plenty of jitters from everyone as none of us could string together any passes. The Wai Wais couldnt either since all they did was long ball it and hoped one of their wai wai teamates would get to it. GF did start to put together some passes towards the end of the first half notably the great 1-2 with Garrows and Aki on the left. Garrows was all charged up and with his silky smooth foot work, he worked his way up doing some great 1-2 with Aki from our left half all the way up to the edge of their penalty box. The ball was then switched over to Howard on the right and I believe Howie either crossed it over to have someone train it in or took a shot. The combos for this buildup was wonderful to watch.
Later, Ikester did get a yellow card for clipping the opponent. It was so weak most of us didnt even remember it at half time. The ref blew his whistle a record breaking 16 times in 35 mins. Thats blowing his whistle almost once every 2 mins. What a joke..
0-0 was how it ended
SECOND HALF
Change: Leo out, Bulldog in
The second half started with equal amount of intensity and chances but after about 5 mins or so, the whistle blowing got worse. Not only did it get worse but every GF player felt the frustration and unfortunately, so did the Ref. Fouls were being called all over the place and more and more free kicks were being awarded in very dangerous areas just outside our penalty box. Then the inevitable happened. Ikester went in for a clean tackle and wai wai tripped over Ikester's hoofs. Ref skipped over like the little red riding hood and whipped out his lovely yellow, then his red. Ikester gone.
The free kick was just outside of the box towards the middle. Wai Wai tried to curl it over the wall and in towards the left corner but Jules made a spectacular save palming it away. Hats off to him. 10 against 11 with I'd say less than 15mins to go, GF battled hard in the back and we played Bulldog as lone striker up front with Spenny filling in for Ikester. Martten also seemed to have injured his ankle or calf and had to sub off with Nate coming in for right back. GF defended hard and well and Bull Dog specifically stood just inside our half in the center circle waiting for the opportunity. Justin fought hard in the back and finally won the ball back. With a quick glimpse, he saw Bull Dog and booted it up front. For about 3 seconds, Bull Dog ran like his pants was on fire thinking this was the break...Linesman decided to call offsides. WTF... I think Marrten on the side was gonna knock his lights out.
The final 10 mins was very scrappy and lots of fouls were called, plenty of wai wais and just some hard work for our defenders. At one point, D Cheung was sandwiched by 2 wai wais and he decided to just kind of kick it forward and did a wai wai himself. Free kick awarded to GF! D Cheung's acting was awesome but he looked at Justin and laughed immediately after he fell over. I must say, it was classic. Howie took the free kick from just outside the center circle on their half and it floated into the 6 yard box with their keeper performing a very scrappy but lucky catch.
0-0 was how it ended.
Penalties
First up: Bull dog
Second: Spenny
Third: Garrows
Fourth: Howie
Fifth: Donald
Six: Nate
-Wai Wai #1 took the first penalty kick and scored. 1-0
-Bull Dog didnt think the keeper was all that and decided to go for power into the bottom right corner. Keeper makes a 2 handed save. 1-0
-Wai Wai #2 shoots and scores. 2-0
-Spenny goes for a cheeky pass down the middle and scores. 2-1
-Wai Wai #3 shoots and scores. 3-1
-Garrows goes for Zidane like chip into the top left corner and scores 3-2
-Wai Wai #4 shoots and scores. 4-2
-Howie clinically goes for the corner and scores. 4-3
-Wai Wai #5 over shoots and doesnt even hit the woodwork. 4-3
-Donald Tsang lead all of Hong Kong and GF with his graceful finish into the left corner. 4-4
-Wai Wai #6 shoots and unfortunately scores. 5-4
-Nate took a pass/shot/poke towards the left but it kind of took a bounce and rolled into the keepers arms. 5-4 Wai Wais win.
Overall, with 10 men, GF fought with tremendous intensity and kept the scoresheet to 0-0 at full time. The constant whistle blowing by the ref surely didnt help and towards the end, ref was going against us with the calls and GF really had a handful but thanks to our strong defense, 0-0 was a fair result.
Man of the match: Jules
It was a privelege playing with our top level GF L leaguers today and I know we will continue to fight hard for our league position. Thanks to all of u and see u guys at the friendlies.
